The Night of Loz
The Night of Loz was an event that took place on the evening/night of September 2, 2018, revolving around a "secret" Discord server that housed an in-hiding loz18. Setting the Scene loz18 was a user who had gained infamy for posting an accurate leak of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's reveal at E3 2018, including the return of every veteran, the re-designs of each Zelda character, the addition of 's sword to his moveset, and many more details. loz18 would later leak some details regarding August 2018's Smash Direct (correctly guessing the reveal of the main menu, Tournament Mode, and two Single Player modes excluding All-Star; however, one detail he notably got incorrect was that he claimed a new single player mode for unlocking characters would be shown. We were given a hint for a new mode, but it was never actually shown), earning himself even more credibility. Unfortunately, immediately after another successful leak, loz would seemingly descend into madness, leaking Skull Kid on GameFAQs, then proceeding to nuke his GameFAQs account out of fear that the Nintendo Ninjas were coming for him. To combat their approach, he decided to retreat to Twitter.....using the same username. He would repeat his claims regarding Skull Kid, and would also implicate Isaac and Dixie Kong, before deleting all posts related to it and vowing to no longer leak. This vow would only last a few days, because he came back again and posted more Isaac hints and a hint mentioning Goldeneye for the N64 (most likely suggesting Banjo-Kazooie, as Goldeneye was a game developed by Rare, Banjo's creators). Following this, he would vanish, seemingly for good. Mimique Valley Aside from occasional murmurings of loz18 sightings (all of which proved to be fake) following loz18's departure, things went cold regarding his leaks. Unbeknownst to most, he had moved operations to a Discord server called Mimique Valley. Soon after loz18 arrived in Mimique Valley, a mod from the server grew suspicious of him due to his strange behavior and questionable information. Upon noticing SmashBurb, a user who responded to every loz18-related GameFAQs thread with extreme skepticism, the mod reached out to Burb via PM, inviting him to the server, under the condition Burb doesn't give out any of loz's information. Burb would keep his word until September 2, when things suddenly spiraled out of control. The Insider Arrives On September 2, a user by the name of SmashInsideNews made a thread titled "Loz18 has spoken!", which contained screenshots of statements loz18 had made, stating that Isaac would likely not be playable in Smash Ultimate. While most users brushed it off as false, Aloner took it upon himself to ask if anyone from the board was part of that server, and could verify if it was real. SmashBurb did as Aloner asked and checked the server; lo and behold, the information was legit. He reported back and validated it. Not long after this, members of the server got wind that there was a mole in their ranks. Immediately, they kicked SmashBurb for verification of loz's identity, though it was initially believed to be due to him being suspected of being the mole. Either way, the ban could be considered unjust, as a member of the server had been verifiyng loz18 statements prior to Smashburb doing the same, without getting into any sort of trouble. Following Burb's ban from the server, SmashInsideNews posted a video showing Burb getting the boot. Because Discord bans cause users to be removed from the server altogether, it would be impossible for SmashBurb to have gotten this footage, this proved his innocence. Unfortunately for the mods of Mimique Valley, in their effort to remove a mole from the server, they created a second one. The Bomb Drops Outraged by his wrongful ban, Burb decided to take swift and immediate revenge on Mimique Valley: he had recorded footage of the server weeks prior for his own use, as well as footage of the leaks that had been posted earlier that day, and ended up leaking the videos onto YouTube alongside screenshots of Twitter DMs between the Mimique Valley mod that had let Burb into the server and loz18 himself. Though the videos didn't really include very much in the way of new information (the most interesting detail that surfaced was loz18's backstory; he claims to be a Nintendo employee, in an unknown position at the company, though he strongly hinted that he was a translator), the effect was almost immediate. The thread promptly exploded. Senselessbreak, a longtime brown-noser of loz and Vergeben (and wannabe leaker in his own right) had a panic attack, begging for the moderators to intervene, accusing Burb of doxxing (even though the videos had no personal info of loz18 outside of vague details regarding his profession) in the process. The admin of the server itself would pop in, too, originally stating Burb's ban was justified, but would later backpedal and attempt to make peace after the board, who despite typically hating Burb, rallied behind him. loz18 himself would react by posting sarcastic, fake leaks on Discord, which were then posted to GameFAQs by users of the server. Other mods and members of the server went to sites like Smashboards in an attempt to squash the leak and sully the reputation of everyone involved in it. The Fallout The thread would remain open and active for the remainder of the night. In the morning, the mods would strike, deleting most of the posts with leaked videos/screenshots in them, and would suspend both SmashBurb and SmashInsideNews. The chatlog leak videos would be privatized afterward. The most tragic casualty, however, was RotoM1293. Rotom posted a thread with a "loss.jpg" meme making fun of loz18 and his leaks.....and was promptly and inexplicably suspended for it. This caused outrage throughout the board, resulting in many members making threads mourning the perceived demise of Rotom, with some even re-posting the meme image in defiance of the mods. The admins would change SmashInsideNews' suspension to a permanent ban, while both Smashburb and Rotom were put in Purgatory. Mimique Valley, on the other hand, was relatively unharmed. loz18, not wanting to lose the cattle of sheep he had so carefully built up (and the admiration and attention that came along with it), remained on the server despite supposedly being in fear of the Nintendo ninjas coming after his jorb. In fact, loz18 would return to Twitter on September 5, 2018, to post yet another leak, this time hinting at the reveal of Skull Kid during September 6, 2018's Nintendo Direct (which was later postponed). The mod who banned Smashburb, despite having been labeled as being trigger-happy and having the admin of the server express disgust for the gay slurs, basically got a slap on the wrist. Under a new account, Smashburb would post more info on loz18, revealing that he had been told by his informant that loz also implied that he did work on Nintendo's Wi-Fi servers, was involved with Nintendo since the development of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and also claimed to be a high-level competitive Melee player. The Aftermath Little under two weeks later, loz18 posted a full leak of the supposed contents of September's Nintendo Direct (originally scheduled for the 6th, but later moved a week ahead to the 13th) on Mimique Valley. This would ultimately be his undoing, as he'd not only get it all wrong, but Isabelle, a character loz had been adamant would not be playable in Smash Ultimate, was confirmed. With his reputation now in shambles, he left Mimique Valley and deleted his Twitter once more. Basically, the whole incident amounted to nothing, and Mimique Valley's staff had no real reason to throw a temper tantrum of such epic proportions to protect someone who would be outed as a fraud mere weeks later. Category:Dates Category:Terminology Category:Events Category:Isaac